Bill Bailey (American actor)

Bill Bailey as himself c.1984
Clutching a shot of whisky and one of his beloved pipes.

Bailey was born in a small rural town in North Carolina and attended Sanford Central High School.[3] He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1960 with a degree in philosophy, spent some time in the US Army, and then as prison guard in Canada. He married a Texan heiress, and moved to Houston, Texas where he managed a ranch and took part in motorbike scrambling and sports car rallying. He worked as a bouncer, and later organised the first white collar union in the US meat-packing industry.[3] Soon after taking up acting he moved to London in 1968 and within a year of his arrival he became the first full-frontal male nude on the British stage at the Almost Free Theatre, London.[4][5] He has acted in film, television and on London's West End stage.[3]

He is the author of seven published books, most notably Taping Whores (2004).

• Split Infinities, 2000, ISBN 1587210924
• Rolling Thunder, 2001, ISBN 0759644403
• Comedians of Violence, 2003, ISBN 1410734412
• Taping Whores, 2004, ISBN 1418418153.
• Times Two, 2004, ISBN 1414021496
• Is Alice?, 2009, ISBN 1847478980
• The Ghost Society, 2009, ISBN 9781849910842

• Official website